Cleveland schools preliminary report card unchanged

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District says a second release of preliminary report card results from the Ohio Department of Education shows no improvement in the district's overall performance on the state's 24 achievement tests in the 2010-11 school year.

The second release of preliminary information confirms results initially released on September 26.

CEO Eric Gordon says the district's "relatively flat performance" includes an anticipated change on the state performance index of three-tenths of a point and an expected 3.8 percent increase in the graduation rate.

"We were well aware that if CMSD did not meet the state's valued-added measure for the second year, we would move from Academic Watch to Academic Emergency," said Gordon. "We expected better results, but this simply reaffirms the critical importance of the Cleveland Plan and passage of Issue 107 that, together, give us the opportunity to put Cleveland's schools on a path of unparalleled change, growth and success."

"The people of Cleveland worked together to find solutions to problems we can no longer wait for the state and federal government to solve for us," said Gordon. "The historic Cleveland Plan changes archaic school laws for Cleveland only, and gives us a unique opportunity to show state legislators what we can do to improve our schools, if given the chance."